This or that
POV
Millie
What kind of fucking nightmare am I living in right now?
Steph and I are still locked into our staring contest. I break contact and look down at the Playtex sports tampon. The green plastic wrapping in my hand is beginning to form clamminess between my palm and the tampon.
"Steph?" I ask breaking my voice as it comes out.
"What..?" She asks with a mix between confusion and concern.
"I think I missed my period," I say quietly.
The words coming out out from my mouth sound serial. It makes my ears tingle. I've never missed my period. I'm as regular as the tampon wrapper reads.
Steph's mouth opens and closes twice with no words making it out. She's literally speechless for the first time ever.
"Like how late? A day? Two days? A week?" She finally asks.
"Honestly Steph, I don't even know. Things have..well you know..I've kind of lost track." I say internally freaking the absolute fuck out.
"Yeah, yeah, understandable. Did you and X? Like ya know?" She starts to say.
"Have unprotected sex?" I finish the thoughts off for her.
She nods her head.
"Last week, after your party. Things got so heated between us so fast, I don't know if he used a condom or not." I say trying to think back to last week but everything was so foggy that night.
"Okay, well let's not freak out just yet. There are many reasons why women are late for their periods. You've been under an immense amount of stress lately, stress can cause irregular periods." She says and maybe she's right, I hope to god she's right.
"But I guess there's only one way to know for sure babe." She says and she's right, I need to pee on a stick.
"Let's just get it over with..there's a Walgreens around the corner," I say placing my hand over my forehead with worry.
"Well..since you won't be needing this.." Steph claws the tampon from my damp hand and waltzes to the bathroom. Only Steph can make a serious situation not serious.
When Steph comes back out we grab our purses and start walking to Walgreens. The sidewalks have thinned out by half the crowd and the temperature has seemed to drop by at least ten degrees now that the sun is down and the moon is shining. The lights from the skyscrapers are lit and the beauty of nighttime Chicago is beaming.
We make it to Walgreens and I waste no time hunting down a pregnancy test. Steph has ditched me for some other aisle. I find the pregnancy tests, but since I've never bought one before I'm beyond confused about what to get. There's such a variety, first response, clear blue, Walgreens brand..
"Hey Mills, which one?" Steph appears out of nowhere with ice cream in each hand.
"Seriously Steph? I'm in the middle of an actual crisis right now and you want my opinion on ice cream?!" I scold at her.
She blinks twice like I'm the crazy one, "yeah? I'll share."
"Well…obviously the cookie dough, what kind of question even is that?" I say dumbfounded.
"Okay, good choice, I'm gonna put the other one back." She says.
"Oh and get the first response early results, the pink dyes are more accurate, especially if it's a little early to test, you'll still get a faint line if it's positive." She says so confidently.
"How do you even know all that?" I ask in disbelief.
"I don't know I just do, don't tell me this is your first scare.." she says like this is a common occurrence.
"Yeah, it's my first!" I blurt out.
"Oyy," she says almost disappointed sounding.
"It'll be fine, don't worry," she says turning around to leave the aisle.
"Steph wait!" I call out after her, she turns to face me again.
"Can you get me some Skittles too," I say. I can't help that I have a sweet tooth.
"Seriously Millie? Aren't you in the middle of a crisis or something?" She asks sticking out her tongue.
I give her the finger.
"no thanks!" She says disappearing from sight.
Okay, enough playing around now, it's time to get the test. I remove the first response from the shelf and put it in my basket. My nerves are starting to get the better of me. This test determines my life. I can either keep my life the same with a single pink line or rock my entire world with two.